Is this destiny?

After less than two minutes, Ellie was on the beach.

She is sitting on the warm and soft sand with her shoes next to her. Ellie\'s chin is resting on her knees and she is drawing random shapes in the sand with her finger while thinking how Jasper didn\'t need much time to forget about what they talked about. How much was she inside? Few minutes? Five maybe? And he was back to flirting. So much for setting expectations and showing sincerity.

She snorted. Yeah, right… he probably uses words \'I like you\' like it\'s some kind of greeting. Who knows how many times he said those words and to how many girls… and for a moment, she thought that she is special.

A shadow appeared, blocking her sun. Ellie assumed that someone is passing by and didn\'t look up.

"Why do you have a habit of leaving me without saying anything?", Jasper\'s voice startled her.

Ellie didn\'t respond. The only sign that she heard him was that her hand stopped moving.

Jasper removed his suit jacket and sat next to her on the sand. He leaned toward her and nudged her shoulder with his.

"Are you going to ignore me?"

Ellie pressed her lips into a thin line and shoot him a side glance. Why is he here, bothering her again, causing another whirlwind of emotions when he will just go back to flirting?

"How did you find me?"

"I saw you leave the restroom, in the opposite direction than I expected. I followed you here, and even called your name few times, but you didn\'t react. Why did you leave like that?"

"You were busy." Ellie knows that she is acting childish, but she can\'t help it. She had two logical choices, one was to confront him on the spot, and other was to break all ties with him… but she did neither. She is sitting on this wonderful beach, next to the source of her troubles and explaining herself.

"Is that why you decided to come here?"

"I didn\'t decide to come here. I just wanted to be away from you.", Ellie admitted while reminding herself not to look at him. If she looks at him, she might waver… and she can\'t do that.

Jasper knows that she saw him with Millie and Sharon, and her reaction is not unexpected, but…"Ellie…", he held her chin with his index finger and thumb and forced her head to turn toward him. Only when she reluctantly lifted her gaze and looked at him, he spoke: "You gave your three conditions: fidelity, no lies, and respect. I also have one: don\'t jump into conclusions. Especially if you think that I violated one of your three. I demand that you give me a chance to explain myself and don\'t just… leave."

Ellie jerked her head, freeing her chin from his grasp. "What is there to explain? I told you, no flirting, and the first thing I see is you with those two."

Jasper sighed. "If you came and joined us instead of running away, you would hear that I apologized to those two for misleading them. And I told them to keep their distance from me because I am interested only in you, and I don\'t want you to misunderstand or feel insecure in any way."

"I…" Ellie wanted to say that she didn\'t run away, and that she does not feel insecure, but she would be lying. "I\'m sorry."

Jasper smiled, took her hand in his and kissed back of her palm. "I\'m confident that there will be other occasions when I make you uncomfortable. The only thing I ask is that you talk to me before judging and sentencing me."

"OK.", Ellie exhaled.

Jasper looked into Ellie\'s eyes, and with the light from the sun low on the horizon, her brown eyes turned golden. For some reason, Felix\'s voice was in his head, telling him not to rush and to let Ellie set the pace. Jasper suppressed his desire to kiss her. Considering her reluctance, it\'s probably too soon... That little Felix in his head is right. Jasper moved his arm around Ellie\'s shoulders, pulling her closer to lean on him.

Ellie wanted to straighten up, but he held her in place.

"Shhhh… just stay like this and enjoy the sunset."

Jasper felt that Ellie relaxed and he smiled. In his mind, he gave himself a thumbs up.

"We can\'t enjoy the sunset without missing dinner.", Ellie reminded him after a short silence.

"I prefer staying here, with you.", he rubbed her shoulder gently.

Ellie was moved. Her insides were all warm and tingly and she wanted to stay on this beach as long as possible, but…"As a best man, don\'t you need to give a speech before dinner?"

He agreed with her and checked time. "It\'s early, so we can stay longer."

Jasper lowered his head and spoke softly close to Ellie\'s ear. "You know, with this… the two of us are dating."

His husky voice made her heart tremble. It took Ellie few seconds to comprehend his words and she held her breath.

Ellie tilted her head to look at him, and his smug smile irritated her… a little bit. "No way! How can you say that we are dating if we didn\'t have a single date?"

Jasper pursed his lips for few seconds. "We are both busy today… Are you free tomorrow?"

Ellie inhaled more than necessary and hoped that he didn\'t notice. "I need to work."

"Take a day off."

Ellie shook her head, rejecting his idea.

"I can\'t just take a day off. When I have work, I need to work. I have deadlines.", she explained.

Jasper frowned for few seconds before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "Give me the number of your boss."

Ellie was surprised with his sudden stern tone. "My boss?"

"Yes.", Jasper confirmed. "I will tell him how horrible he is to make you work without an option to take a day off. I\'m confident that I can offer him something enticing enough so that you can take at least an afternoon off."

Ellie looked at Jasper who was very serious, intimidating actually. But at that point she was struggling to suppress her laughter. Did he say that her boss is horrible? He obviously does not know that she does not have a boss, so she is her own boss… doesn\'t that mean that he called her horrible? Ellie had no intention to correct this small misunderstanding. It was too funny.

She pushed Jasper\'s hand which held his phone away and said through giggles: "I will talk to my boss and see what I can do about it."

Jasper narrowed his eyes at Ellie. "You are laughing, obviously mocking me. You don\'t think that I am a match for your boss? … And I don\'t believe that you will be earnest when you ask for time off."

Ellie coughed few times to suppress her laughter before explaining: "I am laughing because I\'m happy. And I assure you that my boss will know all my reasons why I need to take the afternoon off… What\'s with the sudden joyful expression?"

"You said that you are happy because you will go on a date with me." His smug smirk was back again.

Ellie closed her eyes and exhaled while a smile sneaked on her lips. Well, she will not deny that she is happy. "Let\'s go back to the event. It\'s getting close to dinner time."

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